14 DAY TRIAL // Netflix is being pressured into shutting down the workaround that allows people from various countries around the globe to access the service via a VPN.
Copyright holders are none too happy about all the people that keep accessing Netflix even though the service hasn’t yet made its way into their country. The entertainment industry wants privacy services to be banned altogether because they open the door to foreign pirates, reports CNET.
While the existence of Netflix has been a good thing for the battle against movie piracy, making people choose to pay a monthly fee rather than download from one site or another, there are plenty of people all over the world who don’t have access to the service.
In Australia, there are an estimated 200,000 people who are using the US version of Netflix. The service is currently available in the United States, Canada, Mexico and other countries in South America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and several Nordic countries, as well as, as of earlier this week, France.
Netflix has some geographical restrictions in place, but with the help of a VPN tool, people have found it very easy to bypass.
“I know the discussions are being had…by the distributors in the United States with Netflix about Australians using VPNs to access content that they’re not licensed to access in Australia,” said Simon Bush, CEO of AHEDA, industry group representing Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brows, Sony Pictures and several other major studios.
Netflix is already being pressured to block VPNs
He added that discussions about blocking Australian access to Netflix are already taking place. While this is what they want and they’re already telling Netflix that they should make a move, they have no idea what should be done to geographically block people using VPNs and international credit cards.
Netflix has already been planning and negotiating its way inside Australia, but has yet to announce a date when the service will become available. As long as the company will be offering pretty much the same content in Australia too, then those 200,000 people are quite likely to make the move and start using the local product.
That doesn’t stop other movie lovers from everywhere in the world to trying to get access to the service while impatiently waiting for Netflix to finally expand to their location.
Hulu implemented a blocklist a few months back to cover VPN services so the entertainment industry seems to be eager for Netflix to follow this example.